The theme of this year's Uppsala Fotofestival was DREAM. 24 solo exhibitions and one street group exhibition of 15 photographers had a chance to exhibit their DREAMS.

"In Uppsala there is a widespread interest in photography. We are many practitioners of the art form; professional photographers, amateurs, freelancers, students, and more. The county has several training programs in secondary and college, numerous photo associations, associations which offer courses in photography, as well as galleries and museums showcasing photographic art. It is also something that most people practice some form and have feelings.

Therefore, this is how they started Uppsala Photo Festival, to create a platform for photography in Uppsala, a development opportunity and inspiration, collaboration and visibility for both photographers and photo enthusiasts." say the two festival producers and project managers Anna Lundgren and Idit Margulis.

"In four years, Uppsala Photo Festival has grown into an international event with an extensive program of four legs; exhibitions, lectures, workshops and competitions. Since 2012, we have a theme each year, which was Movement in 2012, Emotions in 2013, and SELF in 2015.

This year, 2017, the theme was DREAMS.

I had my solo exhibition "Framing Beyond the Wall" about my dream of a United Cyprus, in Uppsala Castle, Peace House with around 40 photos from my project. The festival was a great success with great exhibitions, activities for the children and youth, lectures and workshops and many visitors.

UN Buffer Zone, ‘the no man’s land’, in Cyprus known also as the Green Line was first established in 1960s and became impassable after the physical and communal separation of the city following the July 1974 incidents. It divides Nicosia from east to west and in some places in old Nicosia it is only a few meters wide (only 3.3 meters apart at the narrowest point). The Turkish Cypriot community lives in the northern part while Greek Cypriots live in the southern part where Nicosia transformed into the Turkish Cypriot Lefkoşa or Greek Cypriot Lefkosia. From 1974 until the checkpoints first opened in 2003, people were unable to cross over to ‘the other side’.

Nicosia is the only divided capital in the world and the last divided city in Europe. The history of this city is full of tragedy, fear, tear, conflict and war. In 1974 after the war ended, many people from both communities had to leave their homes and their memories behind and move to ‘the other side’, either south or north, of the country. Their way of life has changed and they had no access to their houses and their neighbors for 29 years. They had a dream of returning back to their houses and living in peace with their neighbors again.

I have decided to shape my project around the Nicosia section of the Buffer Zone within the Venetian Walls of a circular shape, with a circumference of about 5 kilometers. The city in some ways is a symbol of inseparability and unification as those solid Venetian city walls surrounds and holds it together. In so many years, the houses and shops became derelict, stuccos of the buildings have crumbled and windows and doors have been smashed and replaced by sandbags within the Buffer Zone running through the Walled City of Nicosia. In this project I examined not only inside the UN Buffer Zone, which is the ‘no man’s land’ along the city but also the life that continues outside the walls while the people keeping on their daily life, ignoring the existence of the wall. However, both communities still dream for the reunited Cyprus and demonstrate for the solution in the island every single day since the peace talks has collapsed.

Our first event, the photography exhibition of theArtUnited in the Buffer Zone was a great success. The photography exhibition was open for 3 days, 26-28 June during the Unite Cyprus Now protest within the Buffer Zone. After the end of the exhibition the photos were sold and all the proceeds from the sale of the photos was donated to the UCN initiative which is a grass roots independent self-funded initiative of Cypriots from all communities promoting actions in support of peace and the reunification of the island through a negotiated settlement of the Cyprus problem.

The photography exhibition was held by five photographers who are invited by theArtUnited group who declaims that they acknowledge the mistakes of the past and feel the pain of the war and division that’s why they believe that all the Cypriots need to be together in one Cyprus.

They say that: “We are a group of Cypriot photographers united by Art.We find friendship in each other, we can see our common causes. We acknowledge the mistakes of the past and we feel the pain of the war and division . We need to be together in one Cyprus.The green line that has kept us apart all these years, is an open wound. Each one of us struck by this symbol of division and pain, has tried to approach it from a photographic point of view It is a part of our homeland.. yet inaccessible, dead, filled by memories and ghosts..For the last month, the Nicosia buffer zone has come back to life. Both Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been gathering at the buffer zone and demanding PEACE and a reunited Cyprus. This gives us faith for each other, gives us hope for a united future.We have joined our artistic forces and produced some photos of the buffer zone story.We would like to exhibit them and share them in that very part of Nicosia the Buffer zone.We want a solution that safeguards peace and safety.We want to breath life to the dead zone.We want to show to the world that we can be together.THERE SHOULD BE NO OTHER SIDE.”

The photographers included in the exhibition is Bobbe Theoklitou, Tijen Erol, Niki Gavrielides, Mehmet Yakup and Ismail Gökçe